A Tokyo court ruled on Wednesday that a ban on same-sex marriage was constitutional but said the lack of legal protection for same-sex families violated their human rights, which plaintiffs welcomed as a step toward aligning Japan with other G7 nations.The ruling party of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has disclosed no plans yet to review the matter or propose legislation, though several senior members support same-sex marriage.The Tokyo ruling, already influential because of the capital’s outsized influence on the rest of Japan, had been keenly awaited because a 2021 ruling in the city of Sapporo had raised hopes when it found the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, while one in Osaka in June found the opposite.Though partnership certificates from municipalities now cover about 60% of the population in Japan, including Tokyo, they do not give same-sex couples the same rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples.So they move to more friendly jurisdictions, like the United States,” said Masa Yanagisawa, head of prime services at Goldman Sachs and a member of the activist group Marriage for all Japan."